Generally, a toilet paper roll is manufactured by mounting a slender tubular core such as a paper tube on the winding shaft of a toilet paper manufacturing machine, winding toilet paper on the core to a fixed length, extracting the winding shaft from the roll of toilet paper on the core, and cutting the roll of toilet paper into a number of toilet paper rolls of a fixed width. Alternatively, a toilet paper roll may be manufactured by winding a long strip of toilet paper of a fixed width on a tubular core of the same width as the toilet paper. In the toilet paper roll thus obtained, a center hole is secured by means of the tubular core, so that the roll can be rotatably held in position within a toilet paper holder by inserting a roll supporting stem through the tubular core and causing this stem to be supported at the opposed ends thereof on the holder.
However, the manufacturing cost of the toilet paper roll increases by the cost of the paper tube and in addition, when the toilet paper is used up, the core remains, sometimes resulting in inconveniences as, for example, the core is thrown into the toilet bowl and stops up the toilet.
To this end, coreless toilet paper rolls and methods for the manufacture thereof have been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 42-6007 and 55-11100, and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 54-43963. These methods comprise loosely winding at the outset a sheet of toilet paper on a circular winding shaft of a small diameter in a toilet paper roll manufacturing machine, then tightly winding the toilet paper till the paper is terminated, extracting the winding shaft to form the roll of toilet paper, and cutting the roll of toilet paper into suitably sized rolls of a predetermined width. In this case, because the toilet paper is loosely wound at the outset, the winding shaft can easily be extracted. In the center of the toilet paper roll thus manufactured, a hole is formed by extracting the winding shaft, and a small diameter stem is inserted therethrough thereby allowing the roll to be rotatably supported on the holder. However, since the toilet paper is loosely wound at the beginning as described above, the hole collapses and almost disappears under the pressure on the roll when the long roll of toilet paper is cut into short rolls. Therefore it becomes difficult to insert a shaft into the hole in order to support the roll on a holder. Moreover, the absence of a center hole makes the appearance of such roll deviate from the commonly accepted concept of "toilet paper" thus reducing its commercial value.